Monday, September 01, 2025


'Brazenly Anti-Worker': Labor Day Reports Highlight Trump Attacks on Unions


"This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires," said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.


BUT NOT IF YOU ARE A PERSON OF COLOUR, 
A WOMEN, OR GAY WORKER
Hundreds of small American flags stick out of the lawn and a photo of UUS President Donald Trump is displayed on the side of the U.S. Department of Labor on August 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)


Brad Reed
Sep 01, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Although US President Donald Trump's administration likes to boast that he puts "American workers first," several news reports published on Monday document the president's attacks on the rights of working people and labor unions.

As longtime labor reporter Steven Greenhouse explained in The Guardian, Trump throughout his second term has "taken dozens of actions that hurt workers, often by cutting their pay or making their jobs more dangerous."


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Among other things, Greenhouse cited Trump's decision to halt a regulation intended to protect coal miners from lung disease, as well as his decision to strip a million federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, told Greenhouse that Trump's actions amount to a "big betrayal" of his promises to look out for US workers during the 2024 presidential campaign.

"His attacks on unions are coming fast and furious," she said. "He talks a good game of being for working people, but he's doing the absolute opposite. This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires."

Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, similarly told Greenhouse that Trump has been "absolutely, brazenly anti-worker," and she cited him ripping away an increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors that had been enacted by former President Joe Biden as a prime example.

"The minimum wage is incredibly popular," she said. "He just took away the minimum wage from hundreds of thousands of workers. That blew my mind."

NPR published its own Labor Day report that zeroed in on how the president is "decimating" federal employee unions by issuing March and August executive orders stripping them of the power to collectively bargain for better working conditions.


So far, nine federal agencies have canceled their union contracts as a result of the orders, which are based on a provision in federal law that gives the president the power to terminate collective bargaining at agencies that are primarily involved with national security.

The Trump administration has embraced a maximalist interpretation of this power and has demanded the end of collective bargaining at departments that aren't primarily known as national security agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service.

However, Trump's attacks on organized labor haven't completely intimidated government workers from joining unions. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the Trump administration's cuts to the National Park Service earlier this year inspired hundreds of workers at the California-based Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks to unionize.

Although labor organizers had been trying unsuccessfully for years to get park workers to sign on, that changed when the Trump administration took a hatchet to parks' budgets and enacted mass layoffs.

"More than 97% of employees at Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks who cast ballots voted to unionize, with results certified last week," wrote the Los Angeles Times. "More than 600 staffers—including interpretive park rangers, biologists, firefighters, and fee collectors—are now represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees."

Even so, many workers who succeed in forming unions may no longer get their grievances heard given the state of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

As documented by Timothy Noah in The New Republic, the NLRB is now "hanging by a thread" in the wake of a court ruling that declared the board's structure to be unconstitutional because it barred the president from being able to fire NLRB administrative judges at will.

"The ruling doesn't shut down the NLRB entirely because it applies only to cases in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, where the 5th Circuit has jurisdiction," Noah explained. "But Jennifer Abruzzo, who was President Joe Biden's NLRB general counsel, told me that the decision will 'open the floodgates for employers to forum-shop and seek to get injunctions' in those three states."

Noah noted that this lawsuit was brought in part by SpaceX owner and one-time Trump ally Elon Musk, and he accused the Trump NLRB of waging a "half-hearted" fight against Musk's attack on workers' rights.

Thanks to Trump and Musk's actions, Noah concluded, American oligarchs "can toast the NLRB's imminent destruction."

Trump's Labor Day Assault on American Workers


This self-anointed man of the working people has waged an all-out attack on the unions that make workers’ lives better, thrashing away at workers’ rights and unions’ ability to organize.


Then the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump works behind the counter making french fries during a campaign event at McDonald's restaurant on October 20, 2024 in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania.
(Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
THE ONLY HONEST DAY'S WORK HE HAS EVER DONE!
Common Dreams

The man in the McDonald’s suit insists unceasingly that he’s for working people, and huge portions believe him—but what do the facts of President Trump’s actual policies show? What does it mean to be for workers?

You’d think being “pro-worker” would mean things like lowering consumer prices and boosting wages. But the facts show the man in the McDonald’s suit isn’t doing either of those things—in fact, despite the president’s false protestations, he is doing the opposite

Despite Trump’s profoundly Orwellian lies, prices are, in fact, UP from last year for most categories of daily life, according to the Trump administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices for food are up nearly 3 percent since this time last year. Workers’ grocery bills are spiking higher as supermarkets pass along Trump’s tariffs to consumers, as all critics predicted.

You’d think that being for workers would mean supporting higher wages, particularly for working-class and lower-income workers. But again, the man donning the McDonald’s outfit is in fact doing the opposite. As Economic Policy Institute reported, Trump “rescinded an executive order that raised the minimum wage for federal contractors,” effectively slashing these workers’ wages by 25% to 60%. This means that millions of federally contracted workers, some of whom make poverty wages, no longer get minimum wage protections because of Trump.

All of this pain and harm Trump is causing for workers is part of the plan, right out of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025—promoting the profit and wealth interests of the rich and corporations over working people’s needs and survival.

Compounding all this harm, on Labor Day the Trump administration “will advance plans to eliminate federal minimum wage protections for millions of child care and home care providers,” the Center for American Progress reports. Think about that. Millions of low-paid domestic care workers will now lose federal minimum wage protections because of the man masquerading as a McDonald’s worker and man of the people.

With the help of a Trump-appointed judge in Texas, Republicans rescinded a Biden rule aimed at expanding overtime pay for millions of working Americans. That rule would have given overtime pay protections to 4 million workers. Seriously, does that sound pro-worker to you?

You might expect a “pro-worker” president to support middle-class jobs—wrong again. Is it “pro-worker” to fire and lay off hundreds of thousands of government workers, all to pay for tax cuts that almost entirely benefit the rich? This is precisely what Trump is doing. New government projections show Trump will have eliminated about 300,000 federal workers by the end of this year. Think about that, 300,000 people made unemployed by Trump. That is an entire city of middle-class workers, fired and laid off, now desperately scrambling to pay bills, buy groceries, and survive. Many will lose their homes if they don’t quickly find another middle-class job. Doesn’t sound very “pro-worker,” now does it?

Would a “pro-worker” president eviscerate worker safety and health protections on the job? That’s exactly what Trump is doing. His horrendous, harmful bill gutted the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, slashing staff and workplace inspections, the lifeblood of maintaining worker safety and health. More than 140,000 U.S. workers died from hazardous job conditions in 2023, according to the AFL-CIO’s annual “Death on the Job” report. That’s 383 Americans dying every day from dangerous working conditions that can be prevented by stronger regulations and enforcement—but the guy in the McDonald’s outfit is doing the opposite, erasing a stunning 30 percent of inspections while radically reducing penalties for endangering workers.

Deepening this harm, Trump eliminated nearly all workers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a small but important agency that produces critical research on work hazards, including maintaining a firefighter cancer registry and a lab that certifies respirators for many industries. The cuts are “a very pointed attack on workers in this country,” Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the NIOSH workers union told the Associated Press.

This same alleged “champion” of working people is deploying heavily militarized battalions of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to round up suspected undocumented immigrants—engaging in racial profiling, violating Constitutional due process, tearing apart families, deporting legal residents and some U.S. citizens, raiding farms and warehouses and day labor sites, putting millions of hard-working immigrant (and non-immigrant) families in danger and terror.

This self-anointed man of the working people has waged an all-out attack on the unions that make workers’ lives better, thrashing away at workers’ rights and unions’ ability to organize. On the Thursday before Labor Day, Trump spat out yet another anti-worker executive order aimed at erasing collective-bargaining rights from workers at the National Weather Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other federal agencies, Huffington Post reported.

All of this pain and harm Trump is causing for workers is part of the plan, right out of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025—promoting the profit and wealth interests of the rich and corporations over working people’s needs and survival. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Trump’s tax plan enriches the rich while taking from the poor, while adding trillions to the national debt. Those tax cuts primarily going to the rich are paid for in part by Trump’s gutting and slashing of workers’ rights and protections on the job.

Writing for The Nation this week, Robert L. Borosage and Sara Steffens summarized Trump’s wholesale assault on workers compellingly:
Employers are being empowered to act lawlessly toward their workers. Unions are being stripped of the legal structure that protected their existence. Immigrant workers are abused, hunted, and deported. Women and minorities will suffer from discrimination at rates not seen since the civil rights revolution. Workers’ families are shouldering higher costs for food, healthcare, and energy.

On Labor Day and beyond, when the guy the goody grin in the McDonald’s suit says he’s helping working people and making their lives “great again,” remember—all the facts show the opposite. The facts show the Trump administration is undermining workers, making their lives harder, exposing them to more life-threatening hazards, robbing millions of overtime pay, eliminating minimum wage protections for millions more, and attacking the unions that improve workers’ pay and rights and safety on the job.

Don’t buy Trump’s false “happy Labor Day” hype—it’s all lies with those fatty, greasy fries.













Workers Are Paying the Price for Intel Mismanagement...

And taxpayers are footing the bill.



Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel, appears at an event organized by the company on April 29, 2025 in San Jose, California.
(Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images)


Rand Wilson
Aug 29, 2025
Common Dreams


It’s not every day that the president of the United States calls for the head of a major company to be fired. But that’s what happened this August, when US President Trump accused Lip-Bu Tan, the new CEO of Intel, of being too cozy with China.

Then in typical fashion, Trump reversed himself and proposed converting Intel’s $10.8 billion CHIPS Act subsidy into an equity stake. Intel accepted the deal, and now the federal government owns nearly a 10% stake in the company.

While much has been written about Intel’s financial and technical challenges, very little has been said about the impact of management’s cost cutting on the company’s employees.

In October 2024, Intel announced its plan to cut 15% of its global workforce, eliminating approximately 15,000 positions. Then shortly afterwards, the company gave its fired CEO Pat Gelsinger a $7,853,450 severance package.

With the government’s huge taxpayer-financed stake in Intel, Intel communities have an opportunity to hold the company accountable for the impact of these job cuts on workers and their communities.

Thus far it has already laid off more than 7,500 workers across four states. But Intel's new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan isn’t suffering any pain. He’s getting $1 million a year and is eligible for bonuses of up to $2 million. His long-term stock options are valued at $66 million.


Studies on the impact of job loss have documented that layoffs increase the risk of suicide, substance use disorders, poor physical and mental health, divorce, and homelessness. The impact extends to the communities where workers live: Local businesses lose revenue, demand for social services increases, and local governments can see their tax base crater.

With the government’s huge taxpayer-financed stake in Intel, Intel communities have an opportunity to hold the company accountable for the impact of these job cuts on workers and their communities. A powerful grassroots movement might go even further and follow up on Intel’s promise to create 10,000 new jobs in exchange for taxpayer funding.

To help build that movement, a dozen labor and environmental groups came together to form CHIPS Communities United (CCU). The coalition aims to hold semiconductor companies accountable for the billions of dollars they’ve received in public funds and tax credits.

This Labor Day, CCU is launching Intel-Layoffs.org to track the extent of job losses at Intel and invite workers to join our campaign for good jobs in the semiconductor industry. The tracker will be a reliable resource and virtual gathering place.

Layoffs provide a teachable moment regarding the benefits of collective bargaining and the value of a union contract. Typical job security provisions provide an orderly process for reductions in staff. And just as importantly, most agreements spell out in writing a fair process for bringing back qualified laid-off employees by seniority.

As Intel works through its technical and marketing challenges, we must not lose sight of the human costs of its crisis and the company’s obligations to workers and their communities.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Rand Wilson
Rand Wilson is a long-time union organizer and strategic advisor to the CHIPS Communities United coalition.
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